[Milton-L] I've found an acrostic...in Paradise Lost!

[James Rovira]

Anieka --

If Milton had followed the Hebrew pattern for acrostics and ascribed
to the English language some of the qualities that the Hebrew poets
assigned to Hebrew...that might be something.  Usually, though, the
poem should be shorter and the acrostic would take up the whole poem.
That's more of a challenge to a talented poet than random words that
can be made to fit context.  Think of sonnet sequences, etc.  The
payoff in all critical exercises is how the exercise helps us
understand the poem.

Jim R